Oman and India have to look beyond oil, gas and food, and look at areas such as healthcare and IT to take bilateral relations to new highs, says Ali bin Masoud al Sunaidy, Minister for Commerce and Industry, Oman. Sunaidy is leading a delegation of top Omanese CEOs in India to discuss trade and investment with the Government and Indian businesses.

In an interview with BusinessLine on the sidelines of bilateral meetings organised by FICCI, the Sunaidy highlighted opportunities for greater cooperation between the two countries. Edited Excerpts:

Bilateral trade and investment flows between India and Oman have been rising steadily. What are the areas that need more focus?

Our trade stands at $6 billion annually and there are about 1,500 Indo-Omanese joint venture companies.

As many as 140 Indian-owned companies are active in our market and $1.25 billion has been invested by India so far. But that shouldn’t make us comfortable.

We shouldn’t be content with the idea that Oman will provide gas and fertiliser and India will provide food and perhaps more Indian workforce. We need to move forward, beyond that. In this particular visit we are focusing on areas such as logistics, health care, manufacturing and IT.

In the health sector, there are Indian companies looking out. What are the possibilities that Oman offers?

We think Indian hospitals are capable of connecting with us and there is a growing interest from them as well.

We are inviting intelligent and smart hospitals to use ICT for diagnosing patients in Oman. Following proper diagnosis, some of the operations and treatment can be done in India and some in Oman.

Apollo is already there in our country and is planning to expand. We are also in talks with other hospitals.

India is already exporting IT products to Oman. Is there scope for expansion?

India is extremely capable in IT and we are already extending our cooperation to the sector. However, if we could add to it the dimension of content management and content development, there could be manifold growth as we could target the entire Arab market, which is growing rapidly.

The Arabs consume a lot of content, both in the areas of entertainment and knowledge. I would like young and dynamic Indian businesses to look carefully at the opportunities and be more innovative.

What about the manufacturing sector?

We already have the Jindals in Oman producing steel and a loan was just sanctioned to expand their plant. It is a very good case study. Omanese gas can be used to make steel.

And the steel can come back to India to fuel industry. I think we will see more mineral-related activity in manufacturing from India.

India and the Gulf Cooperation Council countries have been working on a Free Trade Agreement, but it is taking time.

If the agreement is signed, it will open both for India and the Gulf more opportunities, as it will allow faster movement of goods and services. But until that is concluded, we (Oman) can’t sit idle.

We would like to look at possibilities of value addition and complementarity as opposed to competition.

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